Scared of taking Venlafaxine 75mg

[lostsoul]

Cat

There are horror stories about all drugs on the internet, people feel more need to share their negative stories than the good ones. Not saying it isnt harder to come off of than some other drugs, but as bubble says you take anything slowly and it makes it a little easier.

If it works for you now worry about coming off of it later.

[KK77]

Hey don't worry about that just yet! See if it helps you first and then when you're better you can deal with it when the time comes. All antidepressants can be difficult to come off and it depends on how it affects you - we're all different. I came off Seroxat after 7 years and it was a nightmare ... but I did it. Venlafaxine can't be much worse! X

[Chris 22]

Hi Cat. I have had a chat to my DR about starting on Venlafaxine and he mentioned that he couldn't prescribe it because of heart problems. I live in Garstang so not too far from you. I'm waiting to see a new phychiatrist at Mount Croft Fleetwood where I'm having my current medication reviewed.
My uncle takes Venlafaxine and he said its the best he's had.

[lostsoul]

Current guidelines for GP's indicatate that Venlafaxine should be prescribed by specialists. Although there is nothing to stop any GP from prescribing any medication they wish for any condition.

Each doctor takes a personal judgement - but they are legally bound by any decisions they make so in practice they would rather leave it to a specialist incase anything goes wrong and then they could face possible legal action.

My old GP was a phychiatrist before becoming semi retired as a GP therefor he was happy to prescribe me anything without a referal of recommendation from a phychiatrist as he had considerable experince in that area.

Hope this helps - I really should get out more, I spend far too much time researching things

[nutteetart]

Hi, i hope you are better on venlafaxine now. I was on that for a long time and initially as with all antidepressants with me, i felt pretty rough. In fact i am scared of all meds now but once it was in my system, it was ok. It didnt actually work for me but my psychiatrist has just informed me that antidepressants wont work for me. I have GAD, agoraphobia and depression. He reckons that if we control my anxiety (just started pregabalin) then the agoraphobia and depression are secondary. We will see.

As for withdrawal from venlafaxine, firstly hopefully you will be better equipped mentally by then as at the moment our perceptions are all up the shute so now is not the time to think about withdrawal. When you do though, obviously with the Drs knowledge, he will lower the dose over months. When it gets to 37.5ml (the lowest dose i think) i then halved the tablets and quartered them and then even took a quarter every other day until i was confident enough to come off. I was NEVER sick. If you are anything like me, just suggesting you could be ill is enough to start your worst fears happening so keep an eye on that. Finally my worst side effct when i came off this drug was i would get a strange sensation in my head, a bit like a small electric shock when i moved my head sometimes but i knew what it was and it became the basis for how i withdrew. If i had a lot of them, i would stick on half a tab a day. When they werent so bad i went to a quarter and so on. Wasnt too bad but you can take control of your own withdrawal when the doc okays it.